Mary Allen
Does your cat look at you more often than if you wanted to poison it if you filled its food bowl incorrectly again? Does she wake you out of your deep sleep at three o’clock in the morning with the most pathetic wailing or a courageous paw blow? And how often did you have to dispose of the almost untouched bowl after a loud hunger complaint, because your feline gourmet only a few bites and then withdrawn after an initial great need? Sometimes you have the feeling that our mini tigers would want to fool us with their extravagant feeding behavior. In fact, many of these sometimes stressful behaviors are based on misunderstandings in the cat’s diet. In this article, you will find the top 3 nutrition tips for cats for relaxed feeding behavior.
Location & Equipment of the Feeding Station
Certainly, the feeding place and toilets are as far away from each other as possible, and just as with the toilet, your cat likes to have it clearly laid out at the feeding place on the one hand, so that he can see at an early stage whether someone is disturbing him while he is eating. At the same time, she wants to be a little protected while eating, which is why you should choose the location carefully. There are often food bowls in the kitchen because it is the most practical place for us. In fact, you should rather place it where your cat can eat its meals in peace and be protected from other cats who may be food-jealous or dominant. It can be raised on a cupboard or in a separate room where she can feed in peace. If you have to make sure that an animal only eats the food that has been allocated to it or if you have cats that eat at different speeds, a chip-controlled bowl can also be useful. You program these bowls on the same chip that is also used to find a missing animal and make sure that the bowl only opens for the animal that has been released in this way.
The food bowl should be flat and big enough that your cat won’t bump its whiskers as it picks up the chunks. If a senior lives with you or if your cat is prone to heartburn, you can help with a slightly raised bowl. These can either be bought already higher or you can put the previous model on a small pedestal. A ceramic or metal bowl is more hygienic than plastic and minimizes the risk of the mostly harmless but annoying cat acne under the chin.
Intervals & Times
Often misunderstood as “small dogs”, many velvet paws are only fed twice a day. Sometimes the leftovers are available until the next meal or the bowl is filled with dry food. In fact, cats are little snack hunters and eaters who usually prefer small and fresh meals several times a day rather than just a few larger quantities at once, which quickly smell “old”. A small portion every four to six hours is an optimal feeding interval for a healthy cat. Of course, you have to pay particular attention to the total daily amount so that the animal does not get out of the glue quickly. If you are not personally available for feeding, vending machines will help you keep to the many small meals. In addition to stationary feeding, employment offers with feed rewards are also very popular and optimally complement the diet. You can even integrate wet food as activity feeding with the help of licking mats.
Last but not least, keep in mind that cats are also active at night and that you can not only meet the mini tiger via feeding games and machines but maybe also soothe your feline alarm clock and thus sleep a little longer yourself.
Consistency & Co
“What the farmer does not know, he does not eat” is a well-known proverb and fits in perfectly with the taste of our cats. Pieces or pâté, poultry or fish, with or without jelly, maybe more like sauce. Everything here has to be right for your cat so that the bowl is fed empty and not left with a disgusting nose. In fact, cats are sometimes very picky about their food and very precisely differentiate between the composition of their food. Even recipe changes within a variety often lead to rejection. If you still live with a kitten, it is advisable to pay attention to high-quality basic food with a high meat content and at the same time to vary a bit in consistency, type, etc., in order to make your Minitiger flexible for any food changes that may be necessary later. However, it shouldn’t be too much variation either, since the specialized carnivore has a rather manageable menu in nature and sometimes reacts to too much variety with digestive problems.
For seniors, cats with sensitive stomachs and those who like to be taken to the table, here are a few more diet tips for cats: It can help to warm up the wet food a little. On the one hand, it is more likely to be accepted due to its more intense smell. On the other hand, the cat’s body then saves energy for warming up the food in the stomach and can digest the food better. Again, there are small portions that suit your cat. If your mini tiger is fighting against the acute loss of appetite, so-called “sleepy eating” is sometimes a helpful trick. You wait for the moment when your cat has just woken up from a nap and hold the heated food under her sleepy nose. Before she is fully awake, she may crunch a few bits. “Sleepy Eating” is of course not a permanent solution, but only bridges a little time to deal with the problem.
Nutrition Tips for Cats: Take it Easy!
If you want to change your cat’s diet, e.g. from dry to wet food, it is best to proceed in very small steps. Supplement the previous food with a minimal amount of the new food, which you mix well to get the odor-testing cat used to the new composition. If she accepts your new recipe, go on step by step until the dry food only functions as a kind of “spice” with a few crushed pellets over the wet food and can at some point be left out entirely. As with almost all changes in your cat’s life, you will need one thing above all else: patience!